Merged Franken and the Tea Bagger...

[headscratcher4]

Ok, it isn't a zing moment a'la Barney Frank...but this is a clip of Franken being questioned by a TeaBagger at the Minn. state fair. I am posting it because -- whether you agree with Franken or not -- it was a civil exchange where questions are asked, answers given and calm and rationality prevail. Franken impressed me here...as did the people asking him questions. You see something like this and it restores some of the hope/pride I have in this country, its citizens and the people they elect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/04/franken-calms-down-health_n_277687.html

EDTA: I doubt he convinced anyone or that those who oppose health care reform there convinced him...but it is a discussion, not a crazoid shouting match. And, just to make it clear, I think Franken is wrong on several points...the price negotiation issue with the VA for example. But I wish more of the national discussion had been a discussion and not a who shouts loudest wins session.

 

[HarryKeogh]

Saw this video a little earlier today.

I think when you have a relatively small group of people gathered they lose their urge to shout at the top of their lungs and act like a jackass as opposed to sticking one or two hundred people in a hall where a mob mentality takes over.

 

[dudalb]

Ok, it isn't a zing moment a'la Barney Frank...but this is a clip of Franken being questioned by a TeaBagger at the Minn. state fair. I am posting it because -- whether you agree with Franken or not -- it was a civil exchange where questions are asked, answers given and calm and rationality prevail. Franken impressed me here...as did the people asking him questions. You see something like this and it restores some of the hope/pride I have in this country, its citizens and the people they elect.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/04/franken-calms-down-health_n_277687.html

EDTA: I doubt he convinced anyone or that those who oppose health care reform there convinced him...but it is a discussion, not a crazoid shouting match. And, just to make it clear, I think Franken is wrong on several points...the price negotiation issue with the VA for example. But I wish more of the national discussion had been a discussion and not a who shouts loudest wins session.

There are a lot of legit questions about the Health Care Bill..I am concerned about the intial cost figures in the bill being incredibly off ,according to the CBO...but the problem is a lot of the wingnuts are not asking those, but crap like Death Panals.
Not everybody opposed to the healh bill is a wingnut.

 

[headscratcher4]

There are a lot of legit questions about the Health Care Bill..I am concerned about the intial cost figures in the bill being incredibly off ,according to the CBO...but the problem is a lot of the wingnuts are not asking those, but crap like Death Panals.
Not everybody opposed to the healh bill is a wingnut.

Agree completely, nor are supporters of reform or even the house bill "socialists" or "nazis"...obviously, the tough questions should be asked and I think you are exactly right in that the wing-nuts have given over to asking the berzerker questions rather than trying to draw out politicians' understanding of the bill they are working on.

What bothers me -- not about your post but about the whole debate -- is that I agree with someone I was listening to on NPR the other night. Basically he was saying that these are tough issues, and there are tough questions to be answered, but what has happened to the national debate over the issue is that it has devolved completely, often to the point of irrationality. He worried over our country's ability to address tough problems, especially when seemingly people of otherwise goodwill become so polarized and partisian. It is a sin of both parties to this debate. I'm not suggesting that "bipartisan" is required, but rather that there at least be some consensus that people are struggling with a hard problem where there a complicated and possibly no good solutions and to at least treat each other with respect.

Oh well... enough of my rambles...

 

[boloboffin]

Al Franken, Senator In Action

Say what you like about Al Franken, this video shows him at his very best, and his very best is very good indeed:



The title of the YouTube is silly - there's not an unruly mob anywhere in evidence on the videotape. Maybe it was more rowdy before the videomaker could get his camera out. Maybe. But he's actually talking to and listening to people who disagree with him on the healthcare issue, and his skills in responding to concerns are exemplary.

 

[Matthew Best]

There's a thread about this already:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5076221

 

[geni]

There are a lot of legit questions about the Health Care Bill..I am concerned about the intial cost figures in the bill being incredibly off ,according to the CBO...but the problem is a lot of the wingnuts are not asking those, but crap like Death Panals.
Not everybody opposed to the healh bill is a wingnut.

Thats of only limited significance. The teabaggers and the like are useful to those who wish to prevent reform. People who want to sit around with measured debates about costs? Not so much. The PR line doesn't work so well on that level. Not enough soundbytes.

 

[boloboffin]

There's a thread about this already:

http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5076221

Well, dern.

 

[dudalb]

Thats of only limited significance. The teabaggers and the like are useful to those who wish to prevent reform. People who want to sit around with measured debates about costs? Not so much. The PR line doesn't work so well on that level. Not enough soundbytes.

Sorry, but "that is of limited significance" is the kind of thinking that left us will trillion dollar deficits. Two things I demand of any health care plan are A.A Honest realistic estimate of how much it will cost and B. details as to how exactly it will be paid for.

 

[geni]

Sorry, but "that is of limited significance" is the kind of thinking that left us will trillion dollar deficits. Two things I demand of any health care plan are A.A Honest realistic estimate of how much it will cost and B. details as to how exactly it will be paid for.

The odds of the the issue being decided by such concerns are at this point pretty much zilch. Find a PR guy with a good way to express it and someone prepared to spend millions getting your message out and it's posible that might change. Otherwise your questions remain of limited significance.

 

[Tricky]

Franken did a great job of handling the crowd. To be completely fair, the crowd did not contain anyone that was trying to shout him down. A number of people interrupted, and Franken handled it well, but he did most of the talking. He did not have to deal with the complete asshats who won't let the speaker talk. I think, as a comic, he knows how to deal with hecklers.

 

[corplinx]

Are we still referring to deficit protesters, health care protesters, and LaRouche voters collectively as a homosexuals?

This "tea baggers" thing is kind of juvenile.....

 

[geni]

Are we still referring to deficit protesters, health care protesters, and LaRouche voters collectively as a homosexuals?

This "tea baggers" thing is kind of juvenile.....

Perhaps but it's not a suggestion of homosexuality and he become the convient lable to use until some one comes up with a better alturnative to Tea Party protestors and (losely or otherwise) allied groups/individuals.

 

[oldhat]

I predict a long and fruitful career in the Senate for Franken, and I'm not just saying that as a partisan Democrat. He seemed unusually well informed and approachable for a senator and articulated his views well. I really liked the part when the man tried to say that the hospital in Texas was spending too much money because of illegal immigrants but then Franken referred back to the counterexample of the hospital in Texas and shut him down. He knows his stuff and he's passionate about the issues.

Calling these uninformed nuts teabaggers is juvenile but they deserve nothing but ridicule and mockery for spreading lies about Obama being a secret Nazi Communist Muslim who was born in Kenya and preparing an army of Dr. Mengeles who are going to be deployed to kill their grandmas. Scorn and laughter is the most effective weapon against modern day Birchers.

 

[corplinx]

Perhaps but it's not a suggestion of homosexuality and he become the convient lable to use until some one comes up with a better alturnative to Tea Party protestors and (losely or otherwise) allied groups/individuals.

When the term was coined, it was pretty clearly done so with a smirk and grin because of the sex act mostly performed by male homosexuals.

 

[Juniversal]

When the term was coined, it was pretty clearly done so with a smirk and grin because of the sex act mostly performed by male homosexuals.

Well apparently nobody told THEM (the tea baggers) that. They seemed fine with the term.

 

[boloboffin]

When the term was coined, it was pretty clearly done so with a smirk and grin because of the sex act mostly performed by male homosexuals.

They are the ones that came up with the idea of mailing tea bags to members of Congress (click here for a representative posting). That's where the whole idea to call them teabaggers came from.

And I really hate how funny you are when you aren't picking on me.

 

[Tricky]

Well apparently nobody told THEM (the tea baggers) that. They seemed fine with the term.

Indeed. One lady in the video was wearing a t-shirt that had a variation of one of their slogans, "Taxed Enough Already" on it. They don't seem to have a problem with it. It's like when people call me a Librul. They mean it as an insult, but I'm fine with it.

 

[tyr_13]

When the term was coined, it was pretty clearly done so with a smirk and grin because of the sex act mostly performed by male homosexuals.

Again, I'd never even heard that it was tied to homosexuality until these message boards. It seems pretty broadly sexual to me.

 

[RSLancastr]

Nice post, 'scratcher!